The Steering Committee for the Review of Commonwealth/State Service Provision, in its Report on Government Services 2003, estimated that recurrent expenditure on justice in 2001-02 was approximately $361per person. This excluded spending by governments on items such as justice-related capital works (i.e. new police stations, prisons or court facilities). Of the total recurrent expenditure of nearly $7.0b in 2001-02, $4.6b was spent on police services, and $1.6b on corrective services (table 11.2).

Between 1997-98 and 2001-02, expenditure grew in real terms for corrective services at an annual average of 7.9%, and decreased for civil courts administration at an annual average of 3.6%.

11.2 GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE ON JUSTICE(a)(b)(c)

1997-98

1998-99

1999-2000

2000-01(d)

2001-02(d)(e)

Growth(d)(e)(f)

Justice sector

$m

$m

$m

$m

$m

%

Police services

3,927

4,289

4,521

4,496

4,610

4.1

Court administration - criminal(g)

409

439

440

450

412

0.2

Court administration - civil(h)

436

476

493

358

375

-3.6

Corrective services

1,171

1,289

1,446

1,498

1,587

7.9

Total justice system

5,943

6,493

6,899

6,802

6,984

4.1

(a) In 2001-02 dollars.(b) Recurrent expenditure plus depreciation less revenue from own sources.(c) Payroll tax has not been included for WA and ACT as they are exempt. For all other jurisdictions, it has been included.(d) Court administration expenditure less income has been used instead of in-house revenue in 2000-01 and 2001-02. This has led to a much larger amount of revenue from own sources, particularly for the civil courts for these two years. Care needs to be taken in comparing the rates of growth of court expenditure prior to these two years.(e) The data for court administration (criminal) include a large amount of income from electronic courts not previously reported.(f) Average annual growth rate over the period 1997-98 to 2001-02.(g) Includes the cost of Magistrates' (including electronic and Children's), District/County, Supreme and Coroners' courts.(h) Includes the cost of Magistrates' (including Children's), District/County, and Supreme courts, Family Court, Federal Court of Australia and Family Court of WA. The Federal Magistrates' service has been included for the first time in 2001-02. The data exclude the cost of probate hearings for all years.

Source: Steering Committee for the Review of Commonwealth/State Service Provision, 'Report on Government Services 2003'.